The following is a recent conversation with Tom Baker (Brewery Techne) and Stew Keener (Bar Hygge), recorded and edited by Jim Babinski
Getting the Name Right
Stew: People ask us all the time how to pronounce our name. It’s Hygge—pronounced “HOO-gah.” It means: “A cozy feeling of connection to the moment and to each other.” The word comes from Denmark, but the feeling is universal. It’s that sense of warmth you get when you’re gathered with family or friends, sharing food, conversation, and time together.
Tom: People often ask about the brewery name, too. “Techne” is a Greek word for craft. It felt appropriate because brewing has always been craftsmanship to me.
How It All Began
Tom: I’ve been brewing for more than thirty years, and Brewery Techne is my third brewery. My first brewery was Heavyweight Brewing in New Jersey. We opened in 1999 with a seven-barrel brewhouse and a lot of optimism. At the time, I was making Baltic porters, Belgian golden ales, smoked beers, old ales—styles that were common in Europe but almost impossible to find here. My thinking was simple: if I couldn’t buy them, maybe I should make them.
The beers were well received, especially in Philadelphia, but being a one-person operation was relentless. I brewed, bottled, kegged, loaded the truck, sold the beer, and made deliveries myself throughout Philadelphia, New York, and New England. We survived for seven years, but surviving isn’t the same as building a sustainable business. When I decided to close Heavyweight, I wanted to concentrate on doing a restaurant.
That realization led my wife Peggy and me to open Earth Bread & Brewery [in the Philadelphia neighborhood of Mount Airy] around 2008. Neither of us had restaurant experience, but we believed we could build something around great beer, wood-fired pizza, and hospitality. We designed the restaurant around sustainability long before that became fashionable. We used reclaimed materials whenever we could, sourced ingredients locally, composted waste, and tried to understand where everything on the plate originated. The brewery became only one part of a much larger experience.
Earth was successful because people weren’t simply coming in for beer. They were coming because they felt comfortable there. They became regulars. They brought friends. The restaurant became part of the neighborhood. That lesson has stayed with me.
Stew: When the four of us—Tom and Peggy, Julie and I—started talking about opening a restaurant together, we didn’t know what we wanted to call it. We did know what we wanted it to be: Hospitality. Sustainability. Community. Connection.
Tom: When Peggy and I met Stew and Julie, it became obvious that we shared the same values. They weren’t just talking about hospitality—they were living it. Together we built Bar Hygge and Brewery Techne around that idea [in the Fairmount neighborhood of Philadelphia].
A Philosophy Bigger Than Beer
Stew: The idea isn’t for people to come here and think about us. It’s for them to think about each other. That’s why we don’t have televisions everywhere. That’s why we built comfortable corners and gathering spaces. We wanted to remove obstacles so people could relax, enjoy great food, great beer and great hospitality.
Everything about Bar Hygge starts with hospitality. Sustainability is simply part of doing the right thing. We source local ingredients whenever we can. We work with local farms, cheesemakers and producers because we believe our community should benefit when our restaurant succeeds.
Spent grain goes to compost. Kitchen scraps go to compost. Oyster shells are returned for restoration. Much of the restaurant itself was built from reclaimed materials.
Whenever we have an impasse we ask: What’s the right thing to do? That question has guided every major decision we’ve made. Money isn’t at the top of our value system. Doing the right thing is. Sometimes that costs a little more. Sometimes nobody notices. We still try to do it anyway.
Craft, Not Trends
Stew: Tom brings extraordinary craftsmanship to the brewery. His respect for brewing mirrors our respect for hospitality. That’s why Brewery Techne and Bar Hygge don’t feel like separate businesses sharing a building. I had a beer bar before. I just thought I knew a lot about beer, and I knew nothing. The thing I learned most about brewers is that you have to be a mechanical engineer first. You have to be a scientist second, and then you can be an artist.
Tom: That’s why I’ve always gravitated toward classic styles—pilsners, lagers, wheat beers, saisons and porters. When a delicate lager tastes great, it isn’t because the hops covered a flaw. It’s because every decision along the way was right.
That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy experimenting. We’ve brewed rosé-inspired beers with wine yeast, Baltic porters with Roman beans in the mash, saisons accented with subtle herbs, and plenty of other beers that don’t fit neatly into a category. The important part is that the adjuncts never become the story. The beer should still taste like beer.
Stew: We’re not a super IPA brewery. Tom likes to respect beer styles. The adjuncts are always in the background. He brews saisons where the yeast is the star. He brews balanced pilsners, lagers and wheat beers where the grain bill is one of the most important parts of the beer.
Tom: As drinkers have changed, I’ve changed too. When I first opened Heavyweight, I wanted to challenge people with unfamiliar styles. Today I find just as much satisfaction brewing a clean pilsner or an approachable amber lager. My job isn’t to fight changing tastes. My job is to brew beers people genuinely want to order again.
The Local Malt Decision
Tom: One of the biggest changes we’ve made has nothing to do with recipes. It’s where our malt comes from. For years, I bought malt from Europe because that’s what every brewer was expected to do. When I was introduced to Double Eagle Malt, I assumed local malt would be more expensive. I was wrong.
The quality impressed me immediately, but what surprised me even more was the economics. Most brewers look at the price of a bag of malt and stop there. Freight matters. Storage matters. Cash tied up in inventory matters. Buying from Double Eagle, that grain is coming from down the road. When I compared the real cost—the malt plus what it actually takes to get it here—local ended up being one of the lowest-cost options available to us. For a brewery our size, that’s a huge advantage.
We simply don’t have room to store pallets of malt, and I don’t want to. Instead, we order what we need for the next batch or two. Fresh malt arrives when we’re ready to brew, and then we do it again a couple of weeks later. That flexibility fits the way we operate.
Freshness matters, too. Malt is an agricultural product. I’d much rather brew with malt that came off the kiln recently than grain that’s been sitting in storage. Our staff knows where the malt comes from, it just fits so well into our value system here about using local and they brag about it, that the grain was grown and malted close by. It isn’t just a purchasing decision. It’s part of our identity. Brewing locally simply makes sense.
Stew: That’s why what Double Eagle provides is important to us. The grain bill matters. Using local Pennsylvania malt fits naturally with everything else we’re trying to do here. It fits our value system. Our staff enjoys telling guests where the grain comes from because it’s another part of our story.
Becoming Part of the Neighborhood
Stew: We’ve been fortunate over the past decade to become part of this neighborhood. Our employees stay because they’re treated well. Our guests become regulars because they feel comfortable here. That’s success to me.
Bar Hygge was never just about serving food or pouring beer. It was always about creating a place where people can slow down, share a meal, have a conversation, and leave feeling a little more connected than when they arrived. If we’ve accomplished that, then we’ve done exactly what we set out to do.
Tom: People sometimes ask what I’m most proud of. It isn’t a medal or a particular recipe. I’m proud that after more than thirty years I still get excited about brewing. I’m very proud of the brewery, but I think I’m even more proud of the restaurant’s sustainability. We’re simply trying to brew the right beer, the right way, for the right reasons.